The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1887-05-24
Beeoher ON Sunday Observance.

Interpretation of Sunday and its
proper observance p
The question is one that every min
lister of religion has been asked over
a score Of times, so 1 am not discuss
ing new subject. For myself 1
must say that | am not and have
never been superstitious on the sub
ject Of Sabbath observance.
The Sabbath is every mans day
especially every mans who wants to
be stronger, higher, purer, nobler,
than he has been or is. 1t is a day
made on purpose to elevate men. 1t
is not day designed to enable the
Church to get hitch of folks. 1t IS
not day on which ecclesiastical
authorities are to watch men with
jealousy. II is the common peoples
great liberty day, and they are bound
to see it so that work does not come
into it. Not because work is dis
honorable, not because there is a
special stigma to be attached to work
ing on Sunday. but because they can
not make it what it ought to be for
them if they do suffer work to come
unto it. Work is to be kept out of
Sunday because it does not belong
there.
There is no better rule on this sub
ject, / think, than the old one, that
works of necessity and mercy are
permissible on the Sabbath, and no
others that whatever work is neces-
sary for the real comfort and sus-
tenance of the household, and for the
relief of persons that are really suf-
fering, may be performed on Sunday,
and that all other work is out of place
on that day.
By the same rule, the Sabbath is
not to be a day of locomotion and
travel certainly not in the way of
pleasure l do not think the Lords
Day is broken in spirit, or that any
thing is given up by a man who
travels on the Sabbath Day, if he has
good and sufficient reasons for it; but
that absurd maxim, 1.-The better the
day the better the deed" applied as
it is by many persons, who start on
journey on Saturday in order to gain
one day, or by many persons who,
when away from home, manage to
start so as to be on the road Sunday,
in order to save day, cannot be too
strongly condemned. All these little
devices by which men rob themselves
of Sunday are most unwise.
l am not superstitious in regard to
travelling on Sunday any more than I
am in regard to working on Sunday.
1 do not think that God will strike a
man with lightning because he travels
two or three hours on Sunday morn
ing. Above all, [ ridicule, as being
more pharisaic than they were who
lived 1000 years ago, that man who
travels till II o'clock on Saturday
night, but not one minute longer,
because that would be breaking the
Sabbath. Are we under principles,
or are we under rules
There are too many Of us in my
fathers family There We're eleven
children, and the father and mother
could not take care Of US all and of
course It was the younger ones that
had the authority without the com
munion The older children, I have
nodoubt, in this commerce of thought
and feeling, had happy time My
happy time was very much marred
by catechism. There was that sand
bar right across the mouth of the
family, and ran upon 1t every Sun
day. and there [ stuck Nobody, l !
suppose. had the idea that every per
son in the family ought to be made
happy on Sunday. Yes, old Aunt |
Chandler had. She used to tuck me
up in her great lap (she had a lap big
enough for city to coach down on),
and wrap me in her apron, and pat |
me, and talk to me in her great |
round, mellow, good voice, when I
had lost my supper because [ did not |
know my catechism. The fact is, I |
have never known it from that day to |
this
As to going on excursions and seek
ing amusements on the Sabbath, [ |
am decidedly in favor of walking out !
on the Lords Day, with moderation,
for hundred reasons.
SO far as the working classes are
concerned, it may be occasionally true
that the Lords Day should be day
to, take them out from the murky
where they live; from
the filth and unventilation and incon-
venience Of their surroundings from
the shop, the attic, the cellar It has
been strongly urged that it is wise
that there should be excursions down
the bay, and up Tie river that there
should be extra railroad trains that
the lower population of the city should !
once a week be emptied into the coun-
try that it is a great deal better that
they should seek recreation out of
the city than that they should stay at
home on Sunday And if that were
the only alternative, l should say so
too. But it is not the only alterna
tive. When men say that these ex-
:.